How do I add a new email account?

You can add a new account to be cleaned by going to the Clean Existing Email section of Spam Filtering. If you are currently cleaning at least one account, you will see a list of those accounts and information like which Mailshell address is receiving the messages and whether the accounts are turned on; click the "Add Account" button to go to the basic setup page for new accounts. If you are not currently cleaning any accounts, you will be taken directly to the basic setup page. On that page, you will be asked to enter the setup information:

• Email Address is the email address you wish to clean.



• Password for this email account is the password you use to sign in to the account you wish to clean.



• Deliver to sets which Mailshell address you want to receive the messages; messages are treated exactly as if they were sent to this address (i.e., all settings and filters that apply to the address you choose will apply to these messages). You can use your @mailshell.com address (if you have one) or any of your disposable addresses. If you want to create a new disposable address, use the field provided.
  
  If you are retrieving messages with Mailshell because you wish to discontinue using that account, check the "Automatically notify senders of this address" box. Everyone who sends a message to this address will be notified that the "Deliver To" address is your new email address and that they should send messages there instead. This feature helps you make the transition from your old email address to a Mailshell address.

Some accounts may require you to activate POP or IMAP access before Mailshell can retrieve messages; check with your email provider if you are not sure whether you need to do this. (Note that, although Yahoo! requires you to pay a fee for POP access, Mailshell doesn't use POP to retrieve messages from their accounts. You do not need to activate POP access to clean a Yahoo! account.)

If Mailshell isn't able to retrieve messages from the account based on the basic setup information, you will be taken to the advanced setup, which asks for more information:

• Login Name is the username you use to sign in to this email account (this is often, although not always, the part of your email address before the "@" symbol--e.g., if you wanted to check the email address "joe@yahoo.com," your login name would be "joe").



• Mail Server Name is the server used to receive email for that account. If you aren't sure what this server is, contact your email provider.



• Mail Server Type is the type of server used to receive email for that account. If you are not sure which type of server it is, contact your email provider, or you can try leaving the selection as "POP" (this is the most common type of mail server).

If Mailshell still isn't able to retrieve messages even with the advanced setup information (e.g., because of a corporate firewall, a proprietary system, or other technical reasons), you may not be able to use this feature for that email address. There are, however, other options that may let Mailshell clean your email.

What's the difference between the basic and advanced setup?

The basic setup only asks for the minimum information necessary to retrieve and clean messages from the most common types of email accounts: your email address, password, where you would like the cleaned messages delivered, and whether you would like to add your old and new addresses to various change-of-address directories.

There will be some instances, though, where Mailshell isn't able to retrieve messages based solely on the basic setup information; this happens most typically because the system isn't able to properly extract the login name, server name, and/or server type from that basic information. In those cases, you will be asked to supply those entries on the advanced setup page.

How often will new messages be retrieved?

New messages will be retrieved automatically every fifteen minutes; for AOL accounts, they will be retrieved every hour. If you are expecting a message and would like to check manually, you can do so by clicking the "Check External Email" link in either the Disposable Email Addresses section of Spam Filtering or the Folders section of Check Mail.

What messages will be retrieved?

Mailshell will attempt to retrieve all messages stored on the servers in the Inbox. The messages will be deleted from the server once they have been successfully retrieved.

How can I edit the setup information for an email account?

You can edit setup information like the email address, password, which Mailshell address is receiving the cleaned messages, and whether the account is on or off by going to the Clean Existing Email section of Spam Filtering and clicking the "edit" link for the account you wish to modify. (Please note that, for security reasons, the password you last entered will not be displayed. Unless it has changed, you do not need to re-enter it.)

If you wish to edit Address Options like the Spam Catcher and Virus Protection settings or the delivery setting for the Mailshell address receiving the messages, you can do so by clicking the address name for that account's entry on the Clean Existing Email page.

When I edit an account, why doesn't my password appear?

For security reasons, the password you last entered will not be displayed when editing an account. Unless it has changed, you do not need to re-enter it.

How can I edit options for an email account like the Spam Catcher strength?

If you wish to edit Address Options like the Spam Catcher and Virus Protection settings or the delivery setting for the Mailshell address receiving the messages, you can do so by clicking the delivery address's name for that account's entry on the Clean Existing Email page.

How can I disable or enable an email account?

If you wish to temporarily disable an email account without deleting it entirely, you can do so on the Clean Existing Email page by clicking the "edit" link next to the account you wish to disable. On the light blue bar above the setup information, use the buttons to set the address to "Off" and click the "Save Settings" button. Mailshell will not retrieve messages from that account until it is re-enabled.

To re-enable an account, follow the directions above to find the control buttons, then use those buttons to set the address back to "On" and click the "Save Settings" button. Mailshell will resume retrieving messages from that account.

How do I know if new messages have been retrieved?

There is no notification for retrieved messages separate from messages received normally: In the Spam Filtering Overview section of Spam Filtering and the Inbox section of Check Mail, the upper left corner of the page will indicate the total number of new messages you have and which folders those messages are in. You can click on a folder name to view that folder, or click the "View Unread Messages" link to see all of your unread messages at once regardless of the folder they are stored in.

If you would like to be notified at an outside email address when you have new messages saved at Mailshell, you can use the new message alert feature.

How do I delete an email account?

You can delete an email account in the Clean Existing Email section of Spam Filtering by using the checkboxes to select the account(s) you wish to delete, then clicking the "Delete" button.